Fifty Four Year Old Woman Dies Of Colon Cancer That Was Undiagnosed During 3 Colonoscopies
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-09-22 14:34:43 | Word Count: 751
Men and women with a family background of colon cancer as well as individuals who have symptoms are at greater risk of developing colon cancer. The main procedure used by doctors to test for colon cancer when a patient has a family history or reports a symptom, like blood in the stool, is the colonoscopy. Using this method physicians can see the inside of the colon and search for the presence of abnormal (and possibly cancerous) growths. Ordinarily, doctors advise that even those who are not at increased risk nonetheless get screened commencing at age 50.
Yet for the results of a colonoscopy to be reliable it must be complete. It should cover the entire span of the colon. When obstructions or inadequate preparation render incomplete visualization of areas of the colon, the individual ought to be informed and the doctor should advise the patient that the colonoscopy should be done again or a different option, like a virtual colonoscopy, be considered. If the doctor fails to let the patient know that the colonoscopy was incomplete or that there was inadequate visibility and advise appropriate follow up too much time may pass before the patient starts to show symptoms or gets another screening procedure.
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This is what took place in one documented claim about a fifty-four year old woman who passed away from advanced colon cancer. Consider her medical history. She had a family history of colon cancer. The woman underwent three colonoscopies over six years. On many occasions she continued to tell her physicians that she was experiencing pain in the abdomen and that she noticed blood in her stool. In addition to these two symptoms, her doctors, on at least one occasion, also noted that she had a third symptom of colon cancer - she had anemia.
In this case, the physician who performed the colonoscopies actually recorded, with respect to two of them, that visualization was incomplete in both the ascending colon and the cecum. The doctor further recorded that this was the situation because there was a problem in passing the scope past the transverse colon. But, this same physician kept telling the patient that there was no need for her to worry. The doctor continued telling the woman that her symptoms were the result of hemorroids, at no time informing her that it had not been possible to look at the entire colon.
Ultimately the patient underwent exploratory surgery in an attempt to discover the reason why she was having the symptoms. The cancer was discovered during the surgery. A significant section of her intestines was extracted due to the cancer. The patient was additionally treated with chemotherapy but the patient eventually passed away from the cancer. Her family went forward with a wrongful death claim against the doctor for the failure to detect her cancer and to inform her that the results of the colonoscopies were not definitive. The law firm handled the lawsuit was able to document that they were able to achieve a recovery for the family in the sum of $875,000
Doctors use diagnostic tests so as to find or rule out particular diseases including particular varieties of cancers. For example, the colonoscopy is a procedure employed to search for or exclude colon cancer. However the result of the test is only as good as the reliability with which the test was performed. For the procedure a doctor inserts a scope to see the interior of the colon in order to ascertain if there are any polyps or tumors in the colon
In the event that the full colon is not visualized, as in the claim above, a physician should not depend on it to rule out cancer. Doing so makes about as much sense as only listening to one of your lungs, examining only one of your eyes, or ordering only part of a complete blood count. If the patient does have cancer this could result in a delay in diagnosis that gives the cancer time to grow and progress to an incurable stage. In a situation like that the physician who relied on such a partial outcome might be liable.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about cases involving colon cancer and other cancers including breast cancer by visiting the websites
